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DELAND, Fla. – The Stetson University softball team will return to Patricia Wilson Field for the first time in three weeks to host the Stetson Classic, Mar. 7-9. The Hatters (8-3) are coming off a 2-2 weekend at the UCF Tournament in Orlando, where three of four games were decided in the final inning of play, including a walk-off win vs. UT Martin on Saturday.

Stetson will host Memphis, South Dakota and Bethune-Cookman in DeLand as the four teams will play seven games during a three day stretch. The Hatters have not played in their home park since Valentine’s Day weekend, when they went 4-1 during the Hatter Invitational against Bethune-Cookman, Campbell and Elon.

Stetson is represented well on the A-Sun leader board so far in 2014 as a trio of players rank in the Top five in a number of offensive categories. Junior Demi Meza is second with a .550 on base percentage and is third in the conference in slugging with an .862 average. Senior Meredith Owen is fourth in slugging (.824) and tied for fourth in home runs with four. Freshman standout Jessie TenBroeck ranks in the top five in batting average (.447, third), on base percentage (.512, fourth) and stolen bases (8, fifth).

In the circle a pair of seniors, Owen and Sarah Read are conference leaders in a total of five separate categories. Owen is first when it comes to ERA with a spotless 0.00 mark, while Read is tops in fewest hits allowed with 15. Read is also second in the A-Sun in fewest runs allowed (7) and opposing batting average (.140), during her 31.1 innings of work. Stetson leads all teams in the conference when it comes to fewest walks (19), fewest hits (46), fewest runs (11) and earned runs allowed (11).

Stetson and Memphis will kick-off tournament action, Friday Mar. 7 at 4 p.m. and then the Coyotes will take on the Hatters at approximately 6:30 p.m. Then Memphis and South Dakota play on Saturday, Mar. 8 at 1:30 p.m., followed by a 4 p.m. match-up between Stetson and South Dakota and a 6:30 p.m. rematch of SU and Memphis.

Tournament play concludes on Sunday with South Dakota taking on Bethune-Cookman at 10 a.m., while the Wildcats play the Tigers at noon. This will be the Hatters’ final tune-up before A-Sun play begins next week as defending tournament champion USC Upstate comes to DeLand (Mar. 11-12).

Tickets start at $10 per day and can be purchased online at GoHatters.com/tix or at the Patricia Wilson Field box office. Stetson students, faculty, and staff are free with a valid ID. Subscription based live video of the Stetson games will be available on HatterVision. Live stats, the Stetson softball twitter feed, and the Hat-Alerts text messaging system will provide in-game updates as well.